Pipeline Trial Focuses on Expropriation, not Environment

David Dismukes, Director of the Louisiana State University Center for Energy Studies testified Wednesday as a witness for Energy Transfer Partners that the pipeline will benefit the public because it will expand the state’s crude oil supply to petrochemical companies that create plastics, natural gas, jet fuel and more.

But Scott Eustis, community science director for the Gulf Restoration Network, testified that the pipeline will hurt Louisiana economically in the long run because it will reduce the federal money Louisiana receives from offshore oil revenue under the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act, which funds the state’s coastal restoration projects.

Eustis also said that overproduction from the pipeline will drive down the price of oil, which will hurt Louisiana’s economy.

St. Martin Parish Judge Keith Comeaux had been expected to rule from the bench Thursday but did not. A ruling is expected next week. In the meantime, both parties will file memos with the court estimating how much the plaintiffs are entitled to for their land.

Quigley said that ideally Bayou Bridge would remove the pipeline that has already been buried and return the property to its original state. Barring that, he said, plaintiffs will ask for a “substantial” sum of money for property damages. He said the three plaintiffs have promised to turn over the money to nonprofits benefiting Louisiana, if they receive damages.

“The judge should award these people enough money to warn this corporation, ‘Hey, just because you are worth a billion dollars, you still have to follow the law,’” Quigley said.

“The due process law doesn’t say ‘unless you are a small landowner,’ and it doesn’t say ‘unless you are a pipeline supporter.’ It says you have to follow the law. They didn’t follow the law. This was intentional.”

Pamela Spees, senior staff attorney for the Center for Constitutional Rights in New York, said the judge did not allow testimony from plaintiffs related to the “flipside of the coin, which is the costs to Louisiana of the oil and gas industry — the cost to the coast, the cost to the environment, the cost to lives.”

She questioned how the judge can determine what the benefits of a pipeline will be if he does not also consider what the harms will be.

“Worldwide, the demand for oil is expected to be in a serious decline in the next five years,” Spees said, “and here we are having this pipeline, and they are touting it as though it’s going to bring this huge economic benefit to Louisiana, when the rest of the world knows the demand is declining — as it should be, given the report that the U.S. federal government just issued last Friday that shows that we are in an alarming state of crisis when it comes to climate change.”

That report, the Fourth National Climate Assessment, which was issued by 13 federal agencies on Nov. 23, presents the direst warnings to date of the consequences of climate change for the United States and suggests that if the U.S. immediately reduces its fossil fuel use and greenhouse gas emissions, it could save thousands of lives and generate billions of dollars in benefits for the nation.

Louisiana loses a football field size of land to erosion every hour, in part due to oil and gas infrastructure such as pipelines that crisscross the state. The state estimates that if no corrective action is taken, hundreds of thousands of Louisiana residents will live in zones that will be underwater or on the verge of being underwater in the next 50 years.

“The only person who testified as to why we need more oil is a guy at LSU who they paid $10,000 to come up with 10 Power Point slides saying that the more pipelines we have the better,” Quigley said.

“‘The more refineries we have the better; the more oil and gas we do the better.’ He didn’t say anything about Cancer Alley. He didn’t say anything about destruction of the Atchafalaya Basin. He didn’t say anything about the destruction of the wetlands. He was paid by the Bayou Bridge guys just to come in and say, ‘More oil, more oil, more oil.’”

Cancer Alley is the riverine area along the Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, home to many gas, oil and chemical plants and cancer clusters.

Attorneys for Energy Transfer Partners declined speaking to the press Thursday. The company did not reply to an email request for comment.

Follow @SabrinaCanfiel2

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